Sediment hauled from water treatment plant beginning today

Published 12:01 am Monday, May 13, 2013

PORT ANGELES — Sediment will be hauled from the silt-inundated Elwha Water Treatment Plant along the Milwaukee Grade access road beginning today.

Olympic Discovery Trail users are cautioned that trucks are expected on the trail between Kacee Way and the Elwha River, said the Olympic National Park in a prepared statement.

Veolia Water North America, the contractor operating and maintaining the Elwha Water Treatment Plant, will use the road intermittently throughout the summer, the park said.

Trucks could be on the route between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

The treatment plant about 2.8 miles from the river’s mouth is part of the Elwha Water Facilities created to filter high levels of sediment during removal of two dams on the Elwha River.

The plant treats the water before it gets to the city of Port Angeles water treatment plant and other users.

The sediment and debris released by dam removal has overwhelmed the plant, first clogging the water intake structures and then seeping into the plant’s interior, depositing silt in pumps, filters and other equipment.

Sediment, gravel and woody debris that was not intended to enter the treatment plant has decreased the amount of water the treatment plant is able to process and increased the time and effort required to clean and maintain it, the park said.

That has meant that Port Angeles has had to rely more heavily than expected on its Ranney Well, the main source for city water.

Drinking water for the city remains clean, Glenn Cutler, Port Angeles public works director, has said.

Repairs were begun by National Park Service contractor Macnak Construction, with two of six water intake screens replaced, but they were put on hold in April while pump station repairs were designed.

“Hauling sediment off-site is one of several actions taken by the National Park Service and Veolia Water North America to address and resolve the issues at EWF,” the park said in its statement issued Friday.

U.S. Department of Interior officials are preparing for possible legal action over alleged design flaws at the Elwha treatment plant.

The Solicitor’s Office, the Interior’s legal branch, said in an April 17 memo that its staff is “investigating the design deficiency issue of [Elwha Water Facilities] and anticipates legal action may result.”

San Francisco-based URS Corp., the engineering, construction and technical services company that designed the Elwha Water Facilities, “has denied responsibility for the problems that are occurring at EWF,” the memo said.

URS Corp. spokeswoman Pam Blum said the company had no comment on potential legal action involving the water facilities.

The Elwha Water Treatment Plant was designed to filter water and pass it along for use by four downstream users: Nippon Paper Industries USA, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife fish-rearing channel built along the river, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s fish hatchery and the Port Angeles Water Treatment Plant, which provides drinking water for the city.

An estimated 6 million cubic yards of sediment — of about 34 million cubic yards trapped by the dams — have flowed down the river as result of the removal of Elwha Dam, completed last March, and the demolition of Glines Canyon Dam, which has been stopped since October.

Dam removal is part of the $325 million Elwha River Restoration Project.

Other truck traffic associated with the Elwha Water Facilities, or EWF, has been ongoing and will continue as long as the Elwha Water Treatment Plant, which is part of the EWF, is in use, the park said, adding that the terms of use are defined in a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding between Clallam County and the National Park Service.